This is Thinking Digital’s tenth year. I know people who have been to them all yet I am not one of them. I forget how many I have been to. It may be as many as seven. Herb Kim has done a fantastic job in bringing together what is the must go to tech event, certainly in the North East, if not the world. If you haven’t been then you must put it on your bucket list.
So what is it about? As Herb says himself, it is very difficult to describe but basically it is a collection of people telling us about the fantastic things that they are either doing or are thinking about. It brings together big thinkers from around the globe.
For me, however, it is a holiday for your brain. While you sit, watch and listen your mind can go wandering to fantastic and wondrous places. You come away with an odd mixture of feelings, somewhere between elation and inadequacy. You find yourself wondering what the heck you have done with your life.
There is so much in Thinking Digital to blog about but I want to start with one of the conference’s defining features, the mixture of technology and the creative arts. Anyone who has read my blog will know that this is one of the things that is most exciting me at the moment. The work that Jason Legget has been doing with Creative Fuse springs to mind.
This year’s conference brought us the talents of Di Mainstone, Artist Experimenter, who creates sculptures, devices and installations inspired by the movements of the human body. Her work on the Human Harp, an instrument that clips to suspension bridge cables, enabling us to hear and play a bridge’s song, blew me away. You can check it out at: http://humanharp.org/
Di’s slot reminded me of those of LJ Rich and Nathalie Miebach from previous events. I am in awe of people who can see and imagine the world in a different parallel to the one which I occupy and I am grateful to Herb and the Thinking Digital team for bringing them to a wider audience.
I am already looking forward to Thinking Digital 18.
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 